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Introduction

Tales of Graces is the twelfth "Mothership" means main Tales game. Originally developed for the Wii, the game was long expected to be localized for North America, but it never materialized. The Wii version was notoriously buggy (IIRC people could get the disk replaced with a bug-fixed version) but sold well enough. A PS3 enhanced version with additional content was released (US/EU Vesperia owners can commence getting mad) and still no localization was announced. Then all of a sudden the Namco-Bandai US Facebook page started posting blurred teaser images of... something. Something that looked kind of like the Graces f logo.

Now we have the game, and Xillia is being localized, so we all hope Tales will stick around in the West.

Unlike the previous Tales game for the Wii (Dawn of the New World), this game is not bad. The plot's, well, Tales-y (I've grown out of being a giant fan of Symphonia's plot, but I still like it) but the skits are fantastic and make paying attention to what's going on more than worth it. Also the gameplay owns with the power of a thousand suns.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the "f" stands for future. There's a "Future Arc" which is more or less an extended-ass epilogue with terrible dungeons.

Cast of Characters

Asbel Lhant
He's a JRPG protagonist. He's not Croix Bartel or Yuri Lowell (unfortunately) so that means he's got a specific kind of dumb going on. He's trying real hard, even if the universe itself seems to hate him specifically. On the plus side he's got a spine and no bullshit amnesia, so that keeps him from falling behind the pack (cough Emil cough).

HubertLhantOswellHe's the cowardly little brother, but Asbel loves him anyway. He also loves Asbel, despite being the perennial victim of his exuberance. We'll expand this entry (all of them, really) as stuff comes up.Whoops he grew up to be a total jerk! Is now a party member again, although he likes to be the one doing the teasing now.

Sophie
Welp, Asbel doesn't, so someone's going to have amnesia around here, and it's her. What are the odds that she's forgotten something really important? It's not a spoiler to say "really high". Formerly known as "Mysterious Girl".

Cheria BarnesShe's in love with the protagonist and has health problems. Try to guess what will happen based on that. Welp, she's got no more health problems. Mysterious! Also now she's pissed at Asbel for ditching everyone for seven years after the incident in the crypt. And by "pissed at", I mean "in love with". Ah Japan and the "tsundere" phenomenon.

Richard
Formally known as "Sir Not-appearing-yet," Richard is Prince and Heir Apparent to the Kingdom of Windor, which Lhant is a subsidiary of. He's really really cynical for a little kid, but then again his life is full of politicians and assassins and such.Now that he's an adult, shit has gone full War of the Roses. Let's hope we can avoid him being buried under a car park.Currently gone full final boss.
After the end of the "main" arc of the game, he's now one of the best characters in the future arc.

Sir Not-appearing-yet Sr.Malik Caesar
A cool dude who serves as a Knight Instructor at the Knight Academy. Knight overload. Also manliness overload.

Dame Not-appearing-yetPascal
Pascal is smart, but sucks at interpersonal communication. And fashion. And hygene. A few baconators and she could be... I'll avoid finishing this sentence.

Mechanics
You can look at my previous LPs for explanations of the Tales Series's Linear Motion Battle System, but the gist of it is that you fight in real time and combo sort of like a fighting game. Graces has free run, which means that you can hit a button to move like a normal action game, as opposed to your movement being centered on whatever you're targeting. I'll try to cover most combat mechanics as they come up, but one important one has to be discussed here.

Chain Capacity
Chain Capacity is the greatest. One of the things that caused problems in previous Tales games is that when you ran out of MP TP, you ran out of cool stuff and were reduced to spamming your regular attack, using your limited supply of orange gels, or using an equipment or skill slot to regen it. A while back, some of the people working on the Tales of Destiny remake for the PS2 decided that this was totally bullshit. So they came up with something new.

Under this game's implementation of Chain Capacity, all attacks are special attacksexcept the one at the very start of the combo I guess.
Here's how it works for "physical" attacks, called Assault Artes. Let's say you have 10 CC (Mystery Girl can't, because her max max CC is 9 right now, but pretend). You're not touching the left stick. The first press of A attacks with Shimmering Cut, then the second with Triple Strike, the third with Double Moon, and the last with Piercing Blast. Then you stop attacking until you get some more back (I recommend holding the block button). If you had 12 or more CC, the fifth button press would cast Triple Strike again, and so on if you have a huge amount of CC or can get more of it during your attacking. If your party attacks during your refractory period, you can combo until the enemy activates some sort of escape mechanism.

Burst Artes, the "fancy" or "magic" stuff, works a little differently. You assign an arte to B+stick position and hit it. Honestly I use Assault Artes a lot more than I use Burst Artes, so I can't tell you how to chain them. I also play as Asbel too much. As soon as someone tells me, I'll edit this part and deny any knowledge it was different.

quote:

Basically, anything that has a charge meter will charge faster when it's used farther into your chain. For example, Mysterious Girl gets some charge moves where you hold the A arte button and a meter will build up, giving you a different move based on how many meters you did. If you hold after a 1CC arte, it'll build pretty slow, but after a 4CC arte it will be almost instant.

Thanks Spiffo!

Titles
Titles have always been a big deal in Tales games, as one of the rewards you can get for quests or events or tough optional bosses. In many games they have mechanical effects, and here it's no different. Each title has five "levels", plus mastery. Each title has a bonus you get for having it equipped, and permanent bonuses (stat boosts, new abilities, modifications to an ability, or other special things) that you get each time you gain a level in it. After you gain all the levels, you can continue to pour points into it until you "master" it, which increases the power of its equip bonus.

Skits
Skits are little semi-animated scenes that are totally optional that you can watch in various locations, usually at save points or discoveries. They are also the best part of the game and fully voiced so you should watch the skit videos. Unlike Symphonia and DNW the characters have more of their bodies animated, and can emote more. They even have special cut-in images to add more flair.

The LP
This will be a more-or-less completionist run. I'm trying to cover every sidequest that doesn't require me to beat some hideous minigame or something.

Adverts by Project Wonderful

Hey, adverts can be pretty annoying, right? I know how it is; I don't like it when I'm browsing a site and I accidentally trigger an awful flash ad where a big, freakish iPhone starts singing at me. That's why here on the Let's Play Archive we'll only ever serve up nice banners that behave properly.

The Archive is a personally-funded hobby, and without donation/advert revenue we won't be able to keep it going. Please, if you enjoy the site, consider adding us to your AdBlock whitelist—it really does make a difference.